Germany is on way to state of total surveillance

US informant Edward Snowden said that in the shadow of the US election campaign, such countries as Russia and China, will accept new laws to spy on people.

Snowden did not mention Germany, but the country has recently introduced a surprising number of measures for the surveillance, writes German Der Spiegel.

For example, a few weeks ago the German authorities in an accelerated mode introduced new rules of the German intelligence service BND. The new law allows it to connect to Internet exchange points, located on the territory of Germany, which caused considerable resistance. Amnesty International has called the new law "a permission for total surveillance," correspondents note.

Also Zitis, a cyber security unit, will start working in Germany in the next year. About 60 employees will be engaged in deciphering the encrypted information and helping the police and counter-intelligence. By 2022 the number of Zitis's employees will grow up to 400 people.

Despite the presence in Germany of quite a large number of surveillance cameras in public places as it is, after the terrorist attacks in Ansbach and Munich, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere demanded to loosen rules for private cameras like those installed at stadiums or malls. And in August, the minister called for the use of the software, allowing identifying the person by facial features at railway stations and airports, the article says.

As emphasized by the publication, the law on personal data backup by traffic adopted by the Bundestag in October 2015 is considered the ‘mother’ of all German projects on surveillance. According to the law, the German providers must save the data, when and with whom one of the users talked to, and from what IP-address, for 10 weeks. In addition, service providers are required to store data about the user's location for law enforcement agencies for four weeks. At the same time, the content of calls, emails and internet search history is not saved, the authors note. The German providers are obliged to comply with the new rules completely from July 1, 2017.

Besides, adds Der Spiegel, other changes relating to ordinary citizens, have also become part of the so-called anti-terrorism package. In particular, in the future, the SIM card will be sold only on presentation of identity cards, and law enforcement in the event of suspected terrorists will be able to store the data on persons under the age of 14 years.